A common form of cargo transport involves supporting cargo on the platform of a flat deck trailer to which the cargo is secured using straps which extend over the cargo and which are fastened at opposing ends at spaced apart positions on opposing sides of the platform. A common type of strap comprises a flat textile band supporting a flat strap hook at one end thereof for securement to one side of the platform while the other end is coupled to a suitable winding mechanism to apply tension to the strap extending over the cargo. If there is any slack in the strap however, the hook can readily fall from an engaged position hooked beneath a suitable anchor along the side of the platform so that subsequent tightening of the strap does not necessarily re-engage the hook as the hook becomes misaligned when slack is present in the strap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,938 by Helton discloses a strap hook retainer which retains a strap hook even when there is slack in the strap. This is accomplished by providing a depending retainer flange within a surrounded housing in which a bottom edge of the retainer flange over which the strap hook is retained is pivoted into an in use position in close proximity to a bottom flange of the housing. In this manner the strap hook can only be released by pivoting the retainer flange upwardly and inwardly so as to be sufficiently elevated from the bottom flange to allow passage of the hook therebetween when disengaged from the retainer flange. The configuration of the retainer flange however is very awkward to manipulate due to the pivoting required in the small confines of a surrounding housing. Furthermore the common location of the retainer along the sides of a platform of a transport vehicle commonly results in various debris including road salt and the like which contributes to corrosion and obstructions within the housing of the retainer which prevent ready pivoting of the retainer into a released position. The retainer is thus susceptible to jamming in an inoperable state. Furthermore the hinge design places considerable stress of the tension of the strap on smaller hinge components so that the retainer may be subject to failure under high stress loading conditions.